Remember, most manufacturers (including Apple) don’t want customers doing this sort of stuff. It will void your warranty, curdle your milk, and make your fingernails fall off. However, if you’re out of warranty and don’t have an extended plan like AppleCare, it may be your best option.

I got an ipod mini battery for $6 online, and made it just like new. Also, supposedly you can swap out the Hitachi MicroDrive on the Mini for a CF card. I tried it w/a 16 gb, but it didn’t work. May have just been the card though.

@temporaryerror: I did it on mine and it worked. I had to reset it to factory settings with iTunes (my attempts to copy the data from the old drive failed) but after that it worked like a charm. I’m not sure if the brand of card matters; mine was a Kingston that Fry’s had on sale.

@QADude: I fixed my HP Laserjet 4L with their parts too — there was actually a class action settlement over the sheet feed mechanism in that printer.

It worked fine, but I was alternately amused and annoyed that the instructional video sounds like it was recorded in someone’s garage in Brooklyn, and you can hear sirens and traffic in the background throughout.

How is iFixit new? I’ve been a huge fan of that site for years. I used their step by step guides to repair several Macs before I ever bought anything from them, and then when I dropped my iPhone I bought a replacement screen and some tools from them. The tools were good quality, the screen was great, and I had the screen replaced in about an hour with their instructions. They also answered a question I emailed about the process in about an hour.

@secret_curse: That site is a godsend. I bought an old iBook G3 off ebay a few years ago and it came with a dying 3GB hard drive. Bought a cheap 10GB replacement disk and got ver helpful instructions from their site. 40 screws later, i had a fully working iBook with a new HDD that did its job well, I’d recommend their site to anyone.

iFixit is great. Have they got a new and improved website, or something, though? Because… they’re definitely not new. I bought a replacement trackpad for my old G4 Powerbook from them 2+ years ago. It’s still in its box in my basement, as despite the helpfulness of the step-by-step instructions provided by iFixit, well… I’m just a lazy arse, I guess.

They’ve completely replaced my iPod three times now, once out of warranty (since it was a ‘known issue’ or something… I didn’t ask too many questions) also, often the replacement gets a brand new one-year warranty, so you can just chain warranties into infinity (if you keep having issues).

But yeah, if not, I’ve heard good things about iFixit, from Mac-y friends.

@Wombatish:
Actually, it’s rarely worth giving Apple a shot first if you have the know-how to do it yourself.

For one, Apple “repairs” everything they sell that isn’t a PC by charging you a fee based on the type of issue and simply replaces yours with a refurb. Instead of paying $50 for a part and $50 for labor charges in replacing a cracked iPhone glass, you’re paying Apple $200 for another factory refurb.

Second, no, their warranty does not chain for an additional year. Within your first year, everything is covered. So, lets say you buy an iPod, it dies a month later, and they replace it. You still have 1 year from your original date of purchase. Apple “extends” the warranty to 6 months from product replacement or the end of the initial warranty, whichever comes later. So if you have 5 months left on your warranty, it’s extended by 1 by the time you get it back. If you have 3 months left to your initial warranty, it’s extended by another 3. You can chain… But not for as long as you seem to believe.

But hey… If I don’t just suffer from bad luck when it comes to iProducts, you may be right. In 6 months I had my iPhone 3G replaced twice, so who knows what else will happen in the remaining 4 months of warranty I have running.

Can anyone offer suggestions on the IPOD touch 1st generation issue with the headphone jack? It seems to be rather widespread, the left channel cuts out, you basically have to tweak the headphone jack to the left to get solid sound

Mad props to iFixit! A techie pal of mine offered to replace my iPod headphone jack/hold switch in exchange for a haircut. I ordered the part, he attempted installation and one of the wires popped out and couldn’t be reconnected. He was all set to buy me another part, since it was sort of his fault, but these things are super delicate and the company does work with relative amateurs.

I contacted iFixit, told them what happened, and they’re sending me a new part! It’s nice to have a company be so understanding and generous.

A few months back my Powerbook G4 Hard Drive died and I thought I was screwed when the genius at the Apple store told me it would be something like $350 for the parts and labor. When I came home, I found an extra laptop HD lying around, the found instructions from iFixit. It took me half an hour and no money at all.

Now that’s a cool idea — make it possible for people who want to trade some work for saving some money (and potentially a LOT of hassle) — and make yourself some dough by doing it. This is why entrepreneurism works. *yay*